HDD GURU FORUMS

Hello All!
I recently had a drive start failing Toshiba Dt01aca200 2Tb drive and thought it was the read write head so I replaced that only to have it MSI boot once. Turned the pc off and back on and it wouldn't boot again so I figured it had to be some issue with the motherboard. In trying to transfer the old BIOS chip off the old board I broke a pin off the corner. Should have used rework station hot air and am now reaping the consequences of using a soldering Iron:( So now I am here, with the old motherboard my MSI bios wouldn't even boot let alone windows 10 and would get stuck. In installing the new motherboard the drive now boots ie spins up and does a head search and MSI and windows boot normally. My Issue is when I go to disk management it wants to initialize the drive showing an unknown disk and disk size. I want the data off the drive it is important to me so no initialize. When I go to device manager it is shown as an unknown device, windows says its "working properly" and even shows the options to uninstall or update drivers but explore cant see the drive. Can software like Clonezilla or DDrescue work on a drive despite the BIOS Chip being the wrong one. When they clone sector by sector is the BIOS bypassed or?

Thank yall,
Tyler

Which pin was broken off?

Well how do I explain this hmmm. Tried soldering 3 times with no avail so who knows the chip might be bad I am 90% sure I reconnected the broke leg to the microscopic wire on the Chip but didn't see the solder run on the board to the other side.:/ I did however manage to get the chip off with the soldering iron and I dont think i got it to hot but at this point I am not sure. Wish I would have known about those BIOS flasher deals but its to late I am afraid.
Here are some pictures I took through a 25X lens with my phone (Links might not work not sure)
https://ibb.co/mbYPJf3
https://ibb.co/8mj07dm
https://ibb.co/Cbn8K1q
https://ibb.co/XFJVZhC

Fortunately your "Toshiba" HDD is actually a native Hitachi, so someone may be able to rebuild your ROM.

That said, if the drive was spinning before your mishap, then the PCB was most probably OK.

I did see on a website that my drive is a Hitachi. It actually has been a really good drive very long lasting. Well I am not sure as I got a new donor drive and replaced just the head at first and that's when it booted once. With the old head it had a death click. The head would do a search back and forth over and over never allowing the bios to boot searching across the whole platter. Upon replacing the head it booted once, I forgot to plug my other drive in to emergency transfer the data off and it wouldn't boot again. I figured well shoot if it wasn't the head the internet said the motherboard would be the second option. With the new head installed the click was much much different. The head sounded like it was actually searching the platters stopping at certain spots on the platters but ultimately returning to dock and then doing it all over again with longer intervals in between. With the new head and new motherboard being paired from the donor drive the drive spins up normal and the head does its different search. MSI and window 10 boot like normal now but its an unrecognized disk.
This is board # MDK 110 0A90380 01
Old Board MFG date is 2016 07 23
Donor Board MFG date is 2016 12 29
The number below the plastic is the same being 202 0A90380 01
The BIOS chips however are different along with some other chips being different.
Anyhow anyone know a good USA based company to do this stuff?
Thank you very much for the replies!

The reason you are not getting much offers on the drive being worked on is because the drive was worked on extensively.

Therefore, in addition to the natural damage, likely new human damage may have occurred. This makes the recovery much more complex, additional cleaning, undoing your work, extra examination for the BIOS ROM & rebuild, and so on. Of course, this increases significantly the price and naturally decreases the potential for customer satisfaction. So, it is a lose-lose situation sadly.

Unless, of course, you don't care about price and have lower success expectations.